Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Wednesday said the government is implementing short, medium and long-term plans after identifying 43 priority areas to gradually increase the allocation for the education sector to 5 percent of GDP.
“The government has announced in its election manifesto a plan to gradually increase the allocation for the education sector to 5 percent of the GDP. In line with this goal, 43 priority areas in the education sector have been identified and short, medium and long-term plans are being implemented,” he said.
The Prime Minister made the remarks while replying to a tabled question from treasury bench lawmaker Selim Reza (Sirajganj-1) during the question-answer session in Parliament.
He said the present government considers education the best investment for the nation and is committed to building a quality, life-oriented and inclusive education system.
The Prime Minister said special importance has been given to improving primary education in the election manifesto.
“As part of this, free school uniforms will be distributed among 200,000 students in government primary schools in the current fiscal year, with plans to expand it gradually to all upazilas,” he said.
The government also plans to introduce school feeding or mid-day meal programmes across all upazilas in phases to meet the nutritional needs of primary students.
The parliamentary session began at around 11 am with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed in the chair, after a 30-minute delay caused by a microphone problem.
Four questions were listed for the Prime Minister during the session.
Selim Reza raised the question regarding the government’s plans to prioritise education and equip the new generation with quality education, technology and skills in line with global standards.
Responding to the question, the Prime Minister also said multimedia classrooms will be set up in primary, secondary and equivalent institutions to prepare students for global competition.
To reduce the digital discrepancy, he said free Wi-Fi will be introduced in 1,500 institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, while a unique digital identity or “Edu-ID” will be provided to each student and teacher.
Tarique Rahman also said the government plans to make technical education compulsory alongside general education at the secondary level.
Technical schools and colleges will be established in all upazilas and polytechnic institutes in every district in phases, he added.
The Prime Minister said steps have been taken to modernise technical and madrasa education, including launching free Wi-Fi in 2,336 technical institutions and 8,232 madrasa institutions within the next 180 days.
He said smart classrooms will be introduced in madrasa institutions, along with training for teachers and inclusion of technical courses.
Besides, the Prime Minister said that under the ICT Division, the Bangladesh Computer Council will provide training to students within the next six months in areas such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, mobile app development and designing using Flutter, Python programming and AI-based digital marketing.